


Bedtime Story

by yuletide_archivist



Category: The Wicked Years Series - Gregory Maguire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-19
Updated: 2006-12-19
Packaged: 2018-01-25 02:14:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1626167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A hazy night, a fairy tale, and a pair of lovers.  What could be sweeter?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bedtime Story

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Carmilla

 

 

"Elphaba, tell me a story." Galinda snuggled into the body of her lover, sleepy and contented after a long session of lovemaking. Midnight blacked out the sky outside, putting a dreamy cast on the night, making both women feel that anything could be possible. In the concealing darkness, they were able to pretend that their love was not limited to a few furtive encounters in the shadows. It was comforting to not have to think in those hazy hours.

Elphaba stroked the golden curls of her sweetheart's hair. "What kind of a story?"

Galinda smiled against her pillow of green skin. "Any kind. Just tell me a story. A bedtime story."

Elphaba thought for a moment. "I don't really know many stories, Galinda. Neither of my parents really ever told me any. If anything, I was a story, a morality play." Galinda started to sit up, to protest, but Elphaba stroked a hand down her skin, distracting her and ignoring the slight burn of the moist sweat against her hand. "I don't know a lot of them, but I do remember one. A Munchkin fairy tale that I heard once." She smiled.

"Once upon a time, there lived a lovely young woman. She was so amazingly beautiful that she was cursed by a passing nymph, as people are in fairy tales." Galinda giggled, and Elphaba went on. "This young woman's gifts were many. She was gifted with great beauty. She had a voice that could rival an angel's. And she was brilliant. No one was a match for her in any intellectual area. She was the only child of a rich and kind shoemaker and had never known a moment of unhappiness."

"Sounds wonderful." Galinda imagined herself as the young woman in the story, so completely blessed. It was a nice daydream.

"It was wonderful. The gods had blessed her with all these gifts. She was a favorite of theirs, and she was under the gods' protection. But the nymph was jealous. She was the most beautiful of the nymphs, and was unused to competition. But this woman, this human, was far more blessed than the nymph could have hoped to be. She was lovelier, sweeter, and more beloved by men and the gods than the nymph could hope to be." Elphaba pictured the tormented face of the nymph, as she always did thinking about this story. The nymph, like Elphaba, was unfavored, considered somehow less than the blessed others.

"For her part, the girl was oblivious to the sadness of the lovely nymph. She was so contented with her life that she couldn't sense the danger that was lurking just out of sight. When the girl was walking in the woods one day, the nymph skipped from behind the tree where she had been watching her. The girl was surprised and delighted by the sudden appearance of such a magical being and clapped her hands in delight, thinking that the sighing of the elusive nymph was a good sign. But it wasn't." Elphaba smiled, gently caressing Galinda's back as the other girl's eyes started to droop in sleepiness.

"The nymph was crafty. She had to be. Since this girl was beloved of the gods, they would not let anything happen to her. So instead of a simple curse of ugliness, the nymph cursed the girl and her father with poverty. Her father lost his business that very day, and despite his wonderful reputation, he was unable to find work anywhere. Things went very badly for the girl from then on. She was forced to cut off and sell her beautiful raven hair for bread. She was forced to work with her soft hands to earn extra money to feed her father. All her gifts, which were suited for idleness, were hidden in the harsh realities of her newfound poverty."

Galinda sighed, a small sigh for the plight of the woman in the story.

"But through all the hard times, she never lost her sense of kindness or of hope. It was because of this gentility of spirit that she was saved. On a hot August day, she was drawing water from a well when a man limped up to her, worn and broken from his exertions on the road. He tried to draw himself some water to drink, but was too weak to lift the bucket. Though he appeared to be nothing more than a vagrant, she took pity on him and let him have some of her water, giving it to him with a blessing of health and prosperity." Elphaba imagined the scene, as she always did. The young woman dirty but still perfect. The man on the verge of collapse, and in the outskirts, where she always watched from, was the nymph, knowing that fate was about to intercede.

"As soon as the water touched the man's lips, he straightened up and dropped the cane he had been holding. The man was actually the prince of the land."

Galinda smiled a little, fingers sleepily tracing a random design on Elphaba's stomach. "Does it have to be a prince? Couldn't it be a princess, just this once?"

Elphaba smiled and laughed a little. "All right, sweetheart. It turned out that the beggar at the well was actually a handsome princess. She had sworn that the first person who she came across in her travels who had a pure soul would be her wife, and she had searched her kingdom far and wide, hoping to find any person who would help her without thought to personal gain. The princess had been wandering her kingdom for three years, and had all but given up on her search for a good person left in her kingdom. But since the girl had helped out the prince- er princess, she would become the princess's bride."

Elphaba looked down at her silent lover and saw that she had fallen asleep, the pleasant euphoria having taken over. More for herself than anything else, Elphaba finished the story anyway.

"The way the story goes, they went back to the palace and were married the very next day. The girl's father gained favor with the king and lived in prosperity the rest of his days, and the girl herself married the handsome prince and lived happily ever after. She was the most beautiful and kind queen the kingdom had ever known. And that is the end."

Very quietly, she turned off the lights and lay for a while, thinking about the story and about her pretty lover. "It's a pretty story for a pretty girl," she finally said, still petting the soft hair that curled around Galinda's temples. "You, my sweet Galinda," she said softly, not letting the sounds of her voice wake the other girl up, "are the lovely girl in the story, and someday, your real prince will come, and I, like the nymph, will fade into the background for you. It's inevitable. But while I have you, I will love you, even if it just amounts to this, fleeting moments stolen in the night, dreaming impossible dreams in the moonlight. Goodnight, sweet Galinda."

 


End file.
